Dear Members of the TC Community:

Last month, I wrote to you to introduce our new Teachers College initiative, Advancing Community Together (ACT), developed in preparation for the new academic year. A component of this work is to review and strengthen our policies, both to improve transparency and also to ensure clarity and clear communications across our campus.

I am writing now to share information on our updated policies, along with my deep appreciation for the comprehensive effort of three working groups — comprising students, faculty and administrative representatives — who collaborated over several months to review, update and/or create a range of College policies.

As a reminder, the working groups are:  

• An Infrastructure and Facilities group, which focused on revising policies around campus postings and flyers, along with guidelines for tabling activities.
• A Community Standards group, which reviewed TC’s student conduct policy and the guidelines for guest speakers, and also created a policy for protests and public demonstrations.
• A Communications group, which reviewed policies concerning the official use of several TC communications channels and public communications by faculty, staff and students. 

As a matter of course, all policy recommendations are reviewed and approved by TC’s Policy Review Committee, which was established to ensure consistency and compliance. The following eleven (11) policies are now completed and posted in TC’s Policy Library. 

• College-Wide Campus Access Policy
• College-Wide Tabling Policy
• Postings & Flyers Policy: Bulletin Boards/White Boards & E-Boards
• Student Conduct Code: Academic Integrity & General Misconduct
• Event Guest Speaker Policy
• Protest & Public Demonstration Policy
• Name Use and Brand Policy
• Social Media Policy
• Email Governance Policy
• Statement of Ethical Conduct
• Special Event Approval Policy

Please note that additional policies currently under review by the Policy Committee will be shared once complete.  

I encourage you to take some time to read the above policies. Questions may be directed to tcACT@tc.columbia.edu. 

Again, I thank the working groups for devoting their time to help us foster an inclusive, welcoming and collegial community that is focused on learning and scholarship. I will continue to provide updates on our initiative, which you can also find on our new ACT page. 

I look forward to collaborating with you all as we embark together on the year ahead.  

Warm regards, 

Thomas Bailey
President
Teachers College, Columbia University